Niche Response Structure and the Analytical Potentials of Its Relationship to the Habitat

A system reacts to kinds and/or levels of environmental conditions by producing a response which is a function of those conditions. (The response may vary from passivity, to change or dissolution of the system.) This paper suggests an approach to systems in general, and uses the species (entire species, species population, or individual) as an example of such a system. The niche is considered to represent the response structure of this system. This response structure is then related to environmental conditions to make possible valuable intuitive as well as quantitative, analytical, and modeling approaches to ecological, evolutionary, and other kinds of processes. Simplified examples and models are given to illustrate the utilization of this approach toward the analysis and understanding of the processes of population growth, competition, and prey-predator interaction. Suggestions are made concerning how the approach can be used to model and understand the effects of lags which occur in the feedback systems of ecological processes and how it may be used to illuminate problems of succession, geographic variation, population genetics, both physiological and genetic adaptation (evolution), and others. In addition, if the niche or other system response structure is well enough known, then measurement of system response can be used to study the environment and/or the system-environment complex. Economic, psychological, educational, sociological, urban, human life quality, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and other systems and their processes are amenable to the same intuitive and analytical approaches as have been demonstrated and suggested here for species their response structures, and their processes (competition, predation, succession, evolution, etc.). I would greatly appreciate any comments, suggestions, or references to data, which will assist in the evaluation of the further development of this approach toward better analysis and understanding of ecological and other systems.